Aromatic compound treatment processes (hereinafter, also referred as “aromatic compound separation processes”) refer to processes for obtaining p-xylene (PX) and benzene (BZ) as major final products by treating a raw material, naphtha, in petrochemical plants. In a conventional aromatic compound separation process as represented in FIG. 1, the fundamental process wherein a xylene mixture containing one of major products, p-xylene (PX) is produced, includes 4 sub-processes: a reformer process; a xylene isomerization process; a transalkylation and disproportionation process of aromatic compounds having 7 carbon atoms as well 9 carbon atoms; and a selective toluene disproportionation (STDP) process of aromatic compounds having 7 carbon atoms.
In the conventional aromatic compound processes, the amount of p-xylene in the xylene mixture produced from the selective toluene disproportionation process reaches nearly 90 wt % (% by weight). In the meantime, the p-xylene fraction in the xylene mixture produced from other three processes does not get over the reaction equilibrium, being only about 20-24 wt %, owing to intrinsic characteristics of each particular process. Further, conventional processes also need to be improved in terms of productivity, since they cannot realize the optimal operation of an adsorption chamber, by injecting the xylene mixtures from the 4 sub-processes into the same single part of an adsorption chamber for p-xylene separation through only one inlet.